N0AKA» Misc

Amateur Radio licenses up 60 percent from 1981

Tom — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:35:22 +0000

“Nearly 700,000 Americans have ham radio licenses — up 60 percent from 1981, a generation ago. And the number is growing.”

“Until recently, ham radio was declining as older operators died. Then the Federal Communications Commission phased out the Morse code test that many saw as a stumbling block to getting a license. Last year more than 30,000 new applicants signed up to become ham radio operators, according to Maria Somma, an official with the American Radio Relay League.”

Read the full article at NPR (audio version is available here)

Best Computer Hacker I Know

Tom — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:59:06 +0000

Eagle vs Shark is a great movie — the clip below is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f48PL_3D8Fo

Radio Frequency Spectrum Chart

Tom — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:33:04 +0000

For anyone interested, here is the United States Radio Spectrum Allocation Chart.

Kenwood TM-D710

Tom — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:16:11 +0000

I just picked up a Kenwood D710 and love it!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPH4mwn4uko

New Call Sign

Tom — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:42:41 +0000

So… on 08/19/2008 I applied for the call sign N0AKA. The call sign was assigned to me on 9/6/2008 (taking exactly 18 days – as expected). Previous call sign was KD0EVB.

Why N0AKA?

Not sure! After trying every possible combination of 1×3 “TOM” allowed by my license, I was pretty fed up and just decided to poke around on N4MC’s Vantiy Call Sign page, thus spotting N0AKA. A couple of other picks had been KD0TOM, KC0TOM and K0TWV.